Stronger Civil-Military Links Built between Australia and New Zealand

SENATORDAVIDFEENEY Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary for Defence Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary for Defence, Sen­a­tor David Feeney, today con­grat­u­lat­ed the Asia Pacif­ic Civ­il-Mil­i­tary Cen­tre of Excel­lence on the suc­cess of its civ­il-mil­i­tary inter­ac­tion work­shop (CMIW) in New Zealand.

This is the first time the course has been held out­side Aus­tralia.

Approx­i­mate­ly thir­ty-five civ­il-mil­i­tary experts and offi­cials from Aus­tralia, New Zealand, the Asia–Pacific and Africa, rep­re­sent­ing gov­ern­ment, police, mil­i­tary and non-gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions met at the New Zealand Police Col­lege in Porirua, New Zealand from 2–6 May 2011.

Sen­a­tor Feeney said it was an oppor­tu­ni­ty for Australia’s civ­il-mil­i­tary experts to work with and learn from their New Zealand col­leagues.

Par­tic­i­pants gained a bet­ter insight into civ­il-mil­i­tary affairs and emerg­ing issues in con­flict and dis­as­ter man­age­ment.

“It is impor­tant that we con­tin­ue to work close­ly with New Zealand. The Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment offered sup­port fol­low­ing New Zealand’s recent nat­ur­al dis­as­ter and work­shops such as these improve everyone’s knowl­edge about the plan­ning fac­tors that are crit­i­cal to the con­duct of suc­cess­ful civ­il-mil­i­tary oper­a­tions,” Sen­a­tor Feeney said.

“It was a good oppor­tu­ni­ty for Aus­tralians and New Zealan­ders to share per­spec­tives and best prac­tice.”

Par­tic­i­pants heard from sub­ject mat­ter experts from organ­i­sa­tions such as: Unit­ed Nations, spe­cif­ic coun­tries agen­cies, the Inter­na­tion­al Com­mit­tee of the Red Cross, the Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs and Trade, AusAID, the Aus­tralian Defence Force and the Aus­tralian Fed­er­al Police.

Sen­a­tor Feeney added that the grow­ing impor­tance of civ­il-mil­i­tary rela­tions in con­flict and dis­as­ter man­age­ment made CMIW a valu­able expe­ri­ence for par­tic­i­pants.

“Not only has your knowl­edge of Civ­il-Mil­i­tary doc­trine been enhanced, you have built a valu­able net­work of inter­na­tion­al prac­ti­tion­ers to call on in the years to come,” Sen­a­tor Feeney said.

The Asia Pacif­ic Civ­il-Mil­i­tary Cen­tre of Excel­lence sup­ports the devel­op­ment of nation­al civ­il-mil­i­tary capa­bil­i­ties to pre­vent, pre­pare for, and respond more effec­tive­ly to con­flicts and dis­as­ters over­seas.